GM Alexandra Kosteniuk Back in Top Ten Women World Rankings

Hooray!  She's worked hard the past few years and this year, 2013, her hard work with her coach has paid off.  Congratulations to GM Alexandra Kosteniuk for a fine year.  Check it out, Alexandra posted about it recently at one of her blogs, Chess Queen (TM):


 

FIDE November 2013 Top 100 Women Ratings List has Alexandra at #13 (as of November 29, 2013) -- female players rated at 2500 and above:

Rank	Name	Title	Country	Rating	Games	B-Year
1	Polgar, Judit	g	HUN	2689	0	1976
2	Hou, Yifan	g	CHN	2629	6	1994
3	Koneru, Humpy	g	IND	2618	22	1987
4	Muzychuk, Anna	g	SLO	2566	6	1990
5	Zhao, Xue	g	CHN	2565	15	1985
6	Dzagnidze, Nana	g	GEO	2556	0	1987
7	Lagno, Kateryna	g	UKR	2542	18	1989
8	Khotenashvili, Bela	m	GEO	2524	11	1988
9	Kosintseva, Nadezhda	g	RUS	2523	0	1985
10	Cramling, Pia	g	SWE	2520	10	1963
11	Ju, Wenjun	wg	CHN	2518	36	1991
12	Hoang, Thanh Trang	g	HUN	2511	11	1980
13	Kosteniuk, Alexandra	g	RUS	2510	25	1984
14	Tan, Zhongyi	wg	CHN	2510	15	1991
15	Sebag, Marie	g	FRA	2510	0	1986
16	Gunina, Valentina	g	RUS	2509	24	1989
17	Cmilyte, Viktorija	g	LTU	2506	7	1983
18	Krush, Irina	m	USA	2502	0	1983

Incredible Natural Phenomenon - The Birds Make Giant Bird in the Sky

Hola darlings!  For those of you who celebrated Thanksgiving Day yesterday, I hope you had a wonderful time with family and friends, feasting and drinking to excess :)

Check this out!  This is one of the most awesome things I've ever seen -- wish I could see it in person!!!

Starling murmurations create fantastic show in Scottish sky

Paul Bunyard films the poetry-in-motion spectacle of nature, puts it to music

November 27, 2013 by David Strege

A flock of 10,000 starlings put on quite an impressive show near Gretna, Scotland, with a photographer capturing the imagination with still photos of a gorilla, two dolphins, and a giant bird painted in the sky by starling murmuration, featured in the U.K. MailOnline.

Photographer Paul Bunyard of England went a step further by filming the spectacle of nature and putting it to music. Use your imagination and you might see a whale, a racecar, and any number of other images. The amazing display is pure poetry in motion. Enjoy:



MailOnline reported that the weight of the starlings resting on electricity wires caused minor power outages in a rural village near Gretna, which has a population of around 2,000. But the starlings were a welcomed sight when in flight.

“People can see in them what they like,” photographer Owen Humphreys told MailOnline.
So why do the starlings make these creative gyrations?

“There are several theories as to why starlings gather in this way,” Chris Collett of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds told MailOnline. “Some say it’s for fun, or for communication, but the most likely reason is for survival, the theory being that the sheer number of birds will confuse a bird of prey.”

Whatever the reason, we get to enjoy the show.

Meretites and Kahai, Pyramid Age Love Story

Pyramid Age love story comes to life in Egyptian tomb's vivid color

Owen Jarus LiveScience   
Nov. 15, 2013 at 6:36 PM ET

 

She was a priestess named Meretites, and he was a singer named Kahai, who performed at the pharaoh's palace. They lived about 4,400 years ago in an age when pyramids were being built in Egypt, and their love is reflected in a highly unusual scene in their tomb — an image that has now been published in all its surviving color.
The tomb at Saqqara — which held this couple, their children and possibly their grandchildren — has now been studied and described by researchers at Macquarie University's Australian Center for Egyptology. Among the scenes depicted is a relief painting showing the couple gazing into each other's eyes, with Meretites placing her right hand over Kahai's right shoulder.

Such a display of affection was extraordinary for Egypt during the Pyramid Age. Only a few examples of a face-to-face embrace survive from the Old Kingdom (2649 B.C. to 2150 B.C.), the time period when the couple lived and pyramid building thrived, said Miral Lashien, a researcher at Macquarie University. "I think that this indicates very special closeness," Lashien told LiveScience in an email.

This scene, along with other works of art recorded in the tomb, suggest that women in Pyramid Age Egypt enjoyed a greater level of equality than some scholars believe. "The tomb of Kahai is an example of the importance of women," wrote Lashien in the email. "The frequency of their representations and the equal size to their husbands or brothers suggest equal status." [We already knew that.]

Photo by Ms. Effy Alexakis, (c) Macquarie University Ancient Cultures Research
Center.  Inside a tomb dating back to the age of the Pyramids in Egypt was this image,
an embrace between a priestess and her husband, a singer in the pharaoh's palace. The
image has been  recorded by researchers in full color.

In the scene, Kahai is wearing a wig, a collar over his shoulders, kilt, bracelets and leopard's skin. He also is holding a staff and scepter, which serve as symbols of authority and responsibility probably related to his rise to the position of singing director, Lashien said. Meretites' wardrobe includes a long wig, choker and broad collar, bracelets and a long, tight dress with shoulder straps that appear to leave a breast exposed. (The display of bare breasts was not unusual among ancient Egyptian women.) [Don't you love how long Meretites' arm is -- look where her fingers are resting on Kahai's shoulder and compare the length of her arm versus his, LOL!]
This kind of embrace was not limited to romantic love; one of the few other similar embraces known from Pyramid Age Egypt shows two men who were likely twin brothers, Lashien noted.

Pyramid Age ColorThe tomb itself was discovered in 1966 and published in a book in 1971 mainly in black-and-white images. Scientists returned to the tomb in January and February of 2010 to study and document its artwork in full color. "This tomb is one of the most colourful examples of Old Kingdom art and certainly deserves a full-color publication," Lashien writes in her recently published book, "The Chapel of Kahai and his Family" (The Australian Center for Egyptology: Reports 33, 2013).
When the tomb was discovered in 1966, mummified remains were found in it, but it is not certain if they belonged to the family members. Egyptians in later periods often reused the tombs of those who had lived before them.

Archaeological and artistic evidence indicates the tomb was built during or shortly after the rule of King Niuserre (2420 B.C. - 2389 B.C.), who constructed his own pyramid just to the southeast of the Giza pyramids at a site now referred to as Abusir.

A family of singersKahai and his sons bear titles that indicate they worked as singers, with Kahai becoming the "overseer of singers of the two houses." That title meant "the family was employed in the palace," Lashien said in the email. "Probably, as a result, their tomb is particularly beautiful, being perhaps decorated by the royal artists," she said.

Indeed, the tomb art includes a colorful scene showing two people singing and musicians playing harps and flutes. Whether the musicians shown are family members or other individuals is unknown.
Despite his lofty title, Kahai would probably have kept on singing in addition to performing administrative duties, Lashien said. Looking at representations of musicians from the time period in which they lived, she said, "We have no evidence of large music/singing groups which required a full-time director. The representations show small groups of two to five men and/or women playing string and wind instruments, with one or two singers."

While the tomb itself doesn't reveal the specific songs Kahai sang for the pharaoh's family, the subject matter would, at least in some cases, have been cheerful. From other inscriptions, researchers know, for example, that the songs speak of the "pleasures of life, not different from today," Lashien said in the email, noting that one song encourages people to "eat, drink and be merry."

This is a snip of one of the images on the right side of the photo
of Kahai's and Meretites' tomb.  They are both sitting before
their respective game boards, oh sorry, they are "offering tables"
according to the archaeologists and the playing pieces are not
playing pieces at all but loafs of bread.  Yeah, right.

A father burying his adult sonThough Kahai was apparently successful at his job, his life was not devoid of tragedy. When the team studied the tomb's inscriptions they discovered that Kahai had to bury one of his adult sons, named Nefer. The tomb decorations include depictions of the young children whom Nefer left behind, and an inscription suggests that Nefer's wife was pregnant at the time of his death.

But even when family members died, their survivors could take comfort in the belief that the tomb provided them with a way to keep in some form of contact. The tomb includes five "false doors" with images of the deceased that acted as a conduit of sorts between the world of the living and that of the dead.

"Food was placed in front of the false door, and the Ka (life force) of the deceased was able to come out through the false door to receive the offerings and to enjoy the day," Lashien said.

Oh Pooh, Not a Curse After All

So much for the curse of the mummy and all that, ha!  I do rather wish the cause of the movement would not have been so easy to figure out...

19 November 2013 Last updated at 21:04 ET

Vibrations rotate Manchester Museum's ancient statue

Traffic and footsteps caused an ancient Egyptian statue to rotate inside its glass case, an investigation has found.

Curators at Manchester Museum were left baffled when a time lapse video caught the 10ins (25cm) high stone statue, which dates back to 1,800 BC, moving.

Vibrations expert Steve Gosling placed a specialist three-axis sensor under Neb-Senu's glass cabinet to record its movement over 24 hours.

He said the convex base of the figure made it "more susceptible" to rotate.

Visitor footfall
The sensor revealed traffic and footfall vibrations at busy times of the day, such as 18:00 GMT and 07:00 GMT, caused the statue to rotate.

Mr Gosling, of 24 Acoustics engineering noise consultancy, said: "The vibration is a combination of multiple sources so there's buses outside on the busy road, there's footfall activity."

Movement ceased overnight.

"There's a lump at the bottom which makes it more susceptible to vibrations than the others which have a flat base," Mr Gosling added

Before the test, Egyptology curator Annie Garnett said various theories had been advanced ranging from vibration caused by nearby traffic to visitor footfall.

The statue was donated to the museum by a private collector in 1933.

Testing was undertaken for ITV's Mystery Map series which investigates myths and mysterious stories.

2013 Brno Open

The 2013 Brno (Czech Republic) Open took place November 16 - 23, 2013.  Here are the final standings - a chess femme took clear first place. I saw this reported at The Week in Chess through the early rounds, tournament results at Chess-Results dot com. 

Konečné pořadí po 9 kolech

Poř.	St.č.			Jméno	Typ	pohlaví	Skup.	FED	RtgFIDE	RtgN	Body	PH 1	PH 2	PH 3	K	rtg+/-
1	6		WIM	Abdumalik Zhansaya	U16	w	F	KAZ	2311	0	7.5	40.5	51.5	6	15	30.3
2	2		FM	Kantans Toms			F	LAT	2412	0	6.5	40.5	52.5	5	10	-3.8
3	3		FM	Kojima Shinya			F	JPN	2364	0	6.5	40.0	51.5	5	15	-2.7
4	7		FM	Burdalev Kirill			F	UKR	2280	0	6.5	39.5	51.0	5	15	10.6
5	12		WIM	Semenova Elena		w	F	RUS	2177	0	6.5	39.0	49.0	6	15	18.6
6	1		IM	Plat Vojtech			F	CZE	2472	0	6.5	37.5	49.5	5	10	-1.7
7	5		IM	Strebkovs Andrejs			F	LAT	2324	0	6.5	37.5	47.0	4	10	-4.0
8	14			Tsenov Tsvetoslav			F	BUL	2134	0	6.5	32.0	41.5	5	15	15.9
9	13			Kearns Christopher			F	GER	2158	0	6.0	39.0	49.0	5	15	15.6
10	17			Tesar Jan			F	CZE	2072	0	6.0	36.0	45.5	5	15	13.8
11	10			Golcman Evgeny	S60		F	RUS	2209	0	6.0	32.0	41.5	5	15	-17.3
12	11			Blahynka Martin	U16		F	CZE	2188	0	5.5	40.5	51.5	3	15	2.7
13	15			Ben-Natan Yigal			F	ISR	2084	0	5.5	36.5	47.5	4	15	6.0
	35			Chan Naruna		w	F	RUS	1848	0	5.5	36.5	47.5	4	15	45.3
15	16			Grove Michael			F	SCO	2078	0	5.5	36.0	46.5	5	15	5.1
16	9		FM	Vorobyov Yrij	S60		F	UKR	2226	0	5.5	35.5	46.0	4	15	-26.1
17	4		IM	Chudinovskikh Alexander M.			F	RUS	2334	0	5.5	34.0	43.5	5	10	-22.4
18	19		FM	Spodny Josef	S60		F	CZE	2014	0	5.5	30.0	38.5	2	15	-5.1
19	8		IM	Piankov Evgenij	S60		F	UKR	2264	0	5.0	42.0	53.5	4	10	-4.9
20	20			Kotva Milan	S60		F	CZE	1996	0	5.0	34.0	43.0	4	15	-6.3
21	37			Kreyssig Bruno	U16		F	GER	1837	0	5.0	33.5	43.5	4	15	22.6
22	21			Tabola Marcin			F	POL	1990	0	5.0	33.5	40.5	3	15	0.4
23	44			Kosina Vladimir	S60		F	CZE	1775	0	5.0	32.0	41.0	3	15	17.5
24	22			Vesely Jaromir			F	CZE	1952	0	5.0	32.0	40.5	3	15	-26.3
25	18			Bakalar Jan	S60		F	SVK	2048	0	5.0	31.5	41.0	4	15	-15.3
	34			Fowler David			F	SCO	1859	0	5.0	31.5	41.0	4	15	7.8
27	45			Zikan Karel	S60		F	CZE	1774	0	5.0	29.5	36.5	3	15	17.4
28	32			Veznik Michael			F	CZE	1874	0	4.5	36.5	46.5	4	15	3.3
29	31			Saroun Radek			F	CZE	1875	0	4.5	36.5	46.0	3	15	1.4
30	33			Simo Marian	U16		F	SVK	1873	0	4.5	35.5	45.0	2	15	0.0
31	27			Kopecek Ivan	S60		F	CZE	1912	0	4.5	35.0	45.0	4	15	12.1
32	36			Kucera Jan			F	CZE	1844	0	4.5	34.5	44.0	2	30	11.7
33	28			Pultorak Jan	U16		F	POL	1908	0	4.5	33.0	41.0	4	15	-0.8
34	23			Lintner Felix			F	AUT	1943	0	4.5	32.0	41.5	3	30	-36.6
35	26			Lages Karl-Heinz			F	GER	1917	0	4.5	30.5	39.0	3	30	0.0
36	42			Chapman Nigel			F	SCO	1789	0	4.5	30.5	38.5	3	15	-0.2
37	57			Oglaza Oskar	U16		F	POL	1572	0	4.5	29.5	38.0	3	15	42.8
38	66			Vanicek Lukas			N	CZE	0	1692	4.5	29.5	37.0	4
39	60			Glacner Karel	S60		F	CZE	1554	0	4.5	26.0	33.0	4	15	34.7
40	39			Volna Lukas	U16		F	SVK	1815	0	4.0	33.5	44.0	2	15	18.5
41	24			Stanek Stanislav			F	CZE	1941	0	4.0	33.0	43.5	3	15	-17.7
42	25			Al-Dhabbi Fares			F	YEM	1939	0	4.0	33.0	42.0	3	15	-21.3
43	40			Hrdlicka Vladan			F	CZE	1805	0	4.0	32.0	42.5	4	30	-13.2
44	69			Kaplan Milan			*	CZE	0	1250	4.0	31.0	39.0	3
45	41			Stary Vladimir			F	CZE	1794	0	4.0	30.0	39.0	2	15	-12.0
46	48			Veselsky Jan			A	CZE	1695	0	4.0	28.5	37.5	3	15	3.2
47	51			Baraniuk Andrej	S60		F	UKR	1673	0	4.0	27.0	35.5	3	15	9.3
48	43			Feldvabl Vilem	S60		F	CZE	1779	0	4.0	26.0	34.0	3	15	-7.5
49	50			Romanek Zdenek			F	CZE	1675	0	4.0	26.0	33.5	4	15	-4.3
50	67			Kan Vojtech			N	CZE	0	1664	4.0	25.5	31.5	3
51	53			Rezny Frantisek			F	CZE	1623	0	4.0	22.0	28.5	2	15	-13.5
52	29			Paulik Martin			F	CZE	1903	0	3.5	28.5	38.0	3	15	-11.4
53	58			Bata Jiri			F	CZE	1568	0	3.5	28.5	36.5	3	30	21.6
54	47			Doskar Miloslav	S60		F	CZE	1743	0	3.0	32.0	40.5	3	15	-4.8
55	38			Zejda Karel	S60		F	CZE	1825	0	3.0	30.0	37.5	3	15	-32.0
56	64			Klimina Nina	S60	w	F	RUS	1345	0	3.0	29.0	37.5	3	30	63.6
57	54			Potapova Tatiana		w	F	RUS	1622	0	3.0	28.0	36.0	2	15	9.4
58	52			Kaeding Wolfgang	S60		F	GER	1659	0	3.0	27.5	35.5	2	30	-27.9
59	62			Koci Tereza	U16	w	F	CZE	1439	0	3.0	25.0	31.0	3	15	25.0
60	68			Kaeding Dieter	S60		*	GER	0	1250	3.0	23.0	29.5	2
61	59			Mach Michal			F	CZE	1559	0	3.0	22.0	28.5	0	15	-0.9
62	65			Kacalek Tomas			N	CZE	0	1760	2.5	30.0	38.0	2
63	55			Sojka Oldrich	S60		F	CZE	1607	0	2.5	27.5	34.5	1	15	0.0
64	46			Hruby Vaclav	S60		F	CZE	1746	0	2.5	24.0	32.0	1	15	-47.8
65	61			Zlamal Zdenek	S60		F	CZE	1518	0	2.5	23.0	29.5	0	15	-8.9
66	63			Richterova Julie	U16	w	F	CZE	1439	0	2.5	21.5	28.0	1	15	0.6
67	56			Vlajkov Milenko	S60		F	GER	1600	0	2.0	21.5	28.5	0	30	-74.1
68	30			Horyna Josef	S60		F	CZE	1878	0	1.0	25.5	33.0	1	15	0.0
69	49			Strnad Jiri	S60		F	CZE	1683	0	1.0	24.0	32.5	1	30	-50.7

Poznámka:
Pomocné hodnocení1: Buchholz Tie-Breaks (variabel with parameter)
Pomocné hodnocení2: Buchholz Tie-Breaks (variabel with parameter)
Pomocné hodnocení3: The greater number of victories

23rd World Senior Women's Chess Championship

Holy Hathor!  GM Nona Gaprindashvili played in a simul during this event on November 23 - say what!  Yep, she played!  I sure wish this event had received more publicity, for she is one of the great female chessplayers of our time. I don't know the details or her results, alas.  Link. 

Oh oh - guess what, in the minute or so it took me to write this here, the link and my comment on Facebook have magically disappeared.  So, did she play this simul, or did she not?  Guess not?

This Championship took place November 11 - 24, 2013, in Opatija, Croatia.  World Women's Senior Chess Champion is WFM Yelena Ankudinova, who looks young enough to be my daughter. EEK!  Just how "old" does one have to be to qualify for the female world chess championship, heh?

WFM Yelena Ankudinova.
Senior?  Yeah, right! She just needs
to diet and exercise.

Here is the complete final cross-table for the women's event, and GM Nona Gaprindashvili finished in 2nd place overall:

Rk.	SNo			Name	Typ	sex	FED	RtgI	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	Rp	n	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	9		WFM	Ankudinova Yelena	S50	w	KAZ	2121	7.0	0.0	33.0	0.0	2287	9	7	5.03	1.97	15	29.5
2	1		GM	Gaprindashvili Nona	S50	w	GEO	2312	6.5	0.0	31.0	0.0	2183	9	6.5	7.27	-0.77	10	-7.7
3	5		WGM	Khmiadashvili Tamar	S50	w	GEO	2158	6.0	0.0	34.5	0.0	2241	9	6	4.97	1.03	15	15.4
4	3		WGM	Fatalibekova Elena	S50	w	RUS	2252	6.0	0.0	31.0	0.0	2229	9	6	6.20	-0.20	15	-3.0
5	4		WIM	Miednikova Swietlana	S50	w	RUS	2166	6.0	0.0	30.5	0.0	2236	9	6	5.07	0.93	15	13.9
6	2		WGM	Strutinskaya Galina N	S50	w	RUS	2299	6.0	0.0	27.0	0.0	2162	9	6	7.15	-1.15	15	-17.3
7	11		WFM	Bogumil Tatiana	S50	w	RUS	2074	5.5	0.5	31.0	0.0	2189	9	5.5	3.78	1.72	15	25.8
8	13		WFM	Khropova Larisa	S50	w	RUS	2009	5.5	0.5	30.0	0.0	2085	8	4.5	3.03	1.47	15	22.0
9	8		WIM	Melashvili Nino	S50	w	GEO	2126	5.0	0.0	29.0	0.0	2124	8	4	3.93	0.07	15	1.0
10	17			Baliuniene Margarita	S50	w	LTU	1885	5.0	0.0	25.0	0.0	2057	8	4	1.91	2.09	15	31.4
11	10		WIM	Beltz Martina	S50	w	GER	2100	5.0	0.0	24.5	0.0	1900	8	4	5.42	-1.42	15	-21.3
12	7		WIM	Lauterbach Ingrid	S50	w	ENG	2132	5.0	0.0	23.0	0.0	1892	7	3	4.34	-1.34	15	-20.1
13	14		WFM	Kierzek Mira	S50	w	MKD	2005	5.0	0.0	22.0	0.0	1974	9	5	5.20	-0.20	15	-3.0
14	15		CM	Milligan Helen	S50	w	NZL	1977	4.5	0.0	22.5	0.0	1928	8	3.5	3.52	-0.02	15	-0.3
15	18			Khalturina Tatiana	S50	w	RUS	1823	4.5	0.0	21.0	0.0	1931	8	3.5	2.66	0.84	15	12.6
16	12		WFM	Beliaeva Natalia	S50	w	RUS	2027	4.5	0.0	16.5	0.0	1827	7	3	3.94	-0.94	15	-14.1
17	6		WIM	Titorenko Natalia I	S50	w	RUS	2143	4.0	0.0	26.5	0.0	1897	8	3	5.04	-2.04	15	-30.6
18	19			Milashevskaja Valentina	S50	w	RUS	1814	4.0	0.0	20.0	0.0	1810	7	2	1.63	0.37	15	5.6
19	16			Kabanova Irina	S50	w	RUS	1951	4.0	0.0	19.5	0.0	1803	7	2.5	3.15	-0.65	15	-9.8
20	24			Catania Hannelore J	S50	w	USA	0	4.0	0.0	18.0	0.0	1838	8	3
21	21			Hoose Hannelore	S50	w	GER	1740	4.0	0.0	16.5	0.0	1702	6	3	2.31	0.69	15	10.4
22	25			Pelias Marilyn	S50	w	USA	0	3.0	0.0	17.0	0.0	1663	8	2
23	20			Korneeva Tamara	S50	w	RUS	1757	2.5	1.0	11.5	0.0	1517	7	1.5	2.75	-1.25	15	-18.8
24	23			Arginbayeva Maryana	S50	w	KAZ	1518	2.5	0.0	12.5	0.0	1524	7	0.5	1.15	-0.65	30	-19.5
25	22			Afanasieva Elena	S50	w	RUS	1625	2.0	0.0	12.0	0.0	1410	6	1	1.55	-0.55	15	-8.3

There were two players from the USA - Hannelore J. Catania, who does not have a FIDE rating.  She finished in 20th place overall with 4.0.  Finishing in 22nd place was Marilyn Pelias, also no FIDE rating, with 3.0.  I commend the fighting spirit of both of these chess femmes, hooray! 

Women's prizes:

Position	Prize(€)	Additional reward
1	1.100,00	trophy and gold medal
2	800,00	silver medal
3	600,00	bronze medal
4	500,00
5	400,00
6	300,00
7	200,00
6	100,00